Re:I made 50k calls to explore the telephone network
by pomian on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @09:25AM
(#27604279)
That sounds like a terrible idea. Taking apart a useful infrastructure, with unlimited potential for adoption, for purposes we don't know about yet.
They took apart most of the rail network across Canada, especially the smaller rural links. And sold the land. Imagine trying to recreate an efficient communications system in the future, and trying to purchase right of ways to interconnect all the villages and towns across a 5000km wide country.
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Re:I made 50k calls to explore the telephone network
by fogihujy on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @09:34AM
(#27604373)
The guys, who removed the telephone poles and the wires in these parts, mentioned they paid the local power utility around 40€ per year for each single pole shared with power lines.
Mind you, we're talking (mostly) disused old copper wires, with signal quality too poor to deliver more than a few mbps over ADSL, and most of the country is covered by a very well-built 4G network delivering 10+ mbps pretty much everywhere.
I agree it's sad to see working infrastructure being taken down, but everything was privatized in the 90's/00's and the new network owners have no incentive to keep paying for its upkeep.
Re:I made 50k calls to explore the telephone network
by jimmaswell on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @11:37AM
(#27605744)
What good do some relatively poor quality phone lines do when we have much better coaxial and fiber around?
Re:I made 50k calls to explore the telephone network
by fogihujy on Thursday June 24, 2021 @04:09AM
(#27615072)
The one advantage is that the old phone lines have been proven to be very reliable through a lot of times where something like a 4G connection hasn't. I used ADSL as a backup for times when 4G was unreliable, like extreme weather situations. On the other hand, once line noise reduces your speed to kbps rather than mbps, they're also of limited use in this day and age.